Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerators and, more particularly, to a refrigerator including first and second French-style doors employing a spring loaded mullion bar sealing arrangement which provides for an effective seal between the doors when closed, yet enables independent operation of each of the French-style doors.
Discussion of the Related Art
With the growing popularity of bottom mount refrigerators, certain manufacturers have found it desirable to provide French-style doors for the upper fresh food compartment. Such French-style door arrangements can be desirable for a number of reasons, including weight reduction of any given door. By design, French-style doors typically divide an opening in half such that each French door is approximately half the weight of a conventional door. In addition, with the increased number of storage zones being employed on refrigerator doors, the use of French-style doors enhances the arrangement for storing, as well as the accessibility to a wide variety of objects. Accordingly, when used in conjunction with a fresh food compartment, the size and strength of support structure, generally required in side-by-side applications, can be reduced substantially. However, despite all of the desirable features, there exists a drawback with French-style doors in that a mullion bar, which in side-by-side configurations divides the fresh food and freezer compartments, hinders taking goods in and out of the fresh food compartment. While the mullion is not required to “divide” the compartments, French-style doors require a central sealing surface.
A stationary mullion bar fixed to the refrigerator would limit the size and shape of goods capable of being placed in the compartment, as well as the accessibility to the goods. Toward that end, manufactures have basically devised three solutions to confront this issue. One solution is to mount a stationary mullion on one of the two French-style doors. With this arrangement, the door with the mullion is closed first, then the second door is closed against the mullion. While effective, this design necessitates a specific order of opening and closing the French-style doors and, if not followed, could lead to the door with the mullion bar being left ajar which would allow the cool air within the compartment to leak out.
The second solution offered by refrigerator manufacturers utilizes a rotating or pivoting mullion that alleviates the problems associated with the stationary mullion discussed above. Like the stationary mullion, the rotating mullion is carried by one of the two French-style doors. Typically, the mullion is caused to pivot when the door is opened or closed, with the mullion pivoting about hinge elements that allow the mullion to travel between first and second positions. U.S. Pat. No. 7,008,032 sets forth an exemplary form of such an arrangement.
The third solution avoids the use of a mullion completely. Instead, magnetic seals are provided along the adjacent central edge portions of the French-style doors, with the seals attracting to close off the fresh food compartment when the doors are closed. With this construction, the force required to open the doors is increased based on the need to overcome the magnetic attraction force. In addition, due to the attraction of the magnetic seals and the lack of any mullion structure to seal against, the seals tend to be pulled and distorted in various ways when opening and closing the doors which, over time, can lead to fatigue problems and improper sealing.
Based on the above, there still exists a need in the art for a French-style door refrigerator providing for enhanced sealing between the doors through the use of mullion structure carried by at least one of the doors.